The championship leader took his third pole in a row at Suzuka by topping every single qualifying segment.
Not only it was a great weekend for Verstappen, it was an overall very impressive display from both Red Bull drivers at the home track of their current engine provider Honda.
“I think around here, at Suzuka, it’s always very nice when the fuel comes out, the balance, is more or less there and then you can push flat out,” he said in the post-qualifying press conference.
The only driver to sign a lap in the 1:28s in every segment of Qualifying, he will start the Japanese round alongside his teammate Sergio Perez, who was only 0.066s off the Dutch driver’s time.
“It’s always very, very nice. And of course with the cars improving every single year, it makes it even better. Especially the high speed. So that made it really nice today.”
However, Verstappen wasn’t completely satisfied with his pole lap, as he believes he had the potential for even bigger gains with his second attempt.
He failed to improve in the final sector compared to his first Q3 run as the soft tyres started to give up at the end of the lap.
“Well, I started to lose time from Turn 13 onwards. So it’s very sensitive around here with the tyres. As soon as you push maybe a bit too hard in Sector 1, you run out of tyres to the end.
“And that’s what happened to me in my final lap. So that’s why I didn’t really improve a lot. Also my last chicane, because the front tyres were giving up, I didn’t hit the kerb how it should have been.”
The three-time World Champion ultimately managed to score the top spot with his first push lap, but it was a tight one as Perez was less than a tenth away.
“Let’s say that wasn’t ideal, but it was still good enough. Of course I always wanted to be perfect, but that’s not possible. Luckily it was still good enough today.”
According to Verstappen, his main rivals for the win tomorrow could be the Ferrari drivers despite the fact that they weren’t in the battle for pole. Leclerc and Sainz looked quick on the long runs in final practice.
With the Spaniard P4 on the grid, he has the opportunity to cause some trouble if they are as strong as expected.
“I cannot look inside the Ferrari garage why that is, but it’s quite obvious that then in the long run they seem quite competitive.
“So, we’ll see tomorrow why that is or if it actually is the case like that.”
As for his own race pace, the champion admitted to not being impressed with the long runs he had completed during practice.
“I think so far I haven’t been happy with my long runs. I think the pace wasn’t what I would have liked.
“So it’s a bit of a question mark going into tomorrow, because looking at the long run, especially Ferrari, they look very comfortable.
“Maybe they were not so quick over one lap today, but they were definitely fast in the long run. We’ll have to wait and see how that will evolve tomorrow in the race,” he summed up.
Red Bull still has some tricks up their sleeve, with set-up modifications evaluated during FP3, which leaves Verstappen hopeful that it will be better than how it felt in final practice earlier today.
“Our race pace is still not too bad, but it’s not how I have been feeling in some of the races this year, last year, as comfortable, let’s say it like that, but hopefully with the changes that we made, it will be better,” he concluded, hopeful for another win at the track where he sealed his second title.
